A Hug to Soothe That Pain
by Trust-Me-I'm-a-Fangirl-96422
Summary: The Thorns of Death was unpredictable. Any attack could be Alan's last. So Eric was sure to always be near him whenever one happened, even if it meant becoming the target of Alan's self-loathing.


**If you've seen the second Kuroshitsuji Musical, how can you not ship Eric and Alan. They're meant for each other. Literally. They're my third otp, after Grelliam, which is the first, and Grell x Madame Red, which is second. So, yeah.**

It was normal for me to suffer alone like this. While the majority of my 'attacks' happened before the sympathetic, but far from empathetic, eyes of others, some just came at times like this. Calm times, when all I had done to trigger it was walk around the side of my desk to retrieve paperwork from William's office.

I pressed hard against my chest, biting the inside of my cheeks to keep from screaming out. Screaming out the name that was usually on my tongue whenever the Thorns of Death plagued my heart. The name of the only one who ever truly saw the extent to what this wretched disease had done to me.

Eric...

Eric...!

"Eric!" the name finally left my quivering lips as the pain became too strong. My gloved hands moved from the place where the pain originated to the edge of my desk. My knees were shaking, much like the rest of my body was, and I felt them starting to give out. Deciding it was better to pass out in my chair rather than on the floor, I took a step towards it...

And my legs collapsed under me. I took in a sharp intake of breath, a gasp of terror, and squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the impact of my office floor.

"Alan..." the impact never came. Instead, a different kind of impact, the kind you get from someone's arms pulling you up, greeted me from behind. Still suffering from the claws within me, I thrashed around, whimpering and sobbing out Eric's name. The arms from behind held me still, rubbing my own upper arms and muttering gentle, soothing words.

"Eric...! Eric, i-it... It's k-killing m...e..." I choked, arching backwards to press against the taller man's chest. Eric stood perfectly rigid, adjusting his arms to hold me in my new position.

"Just hold on a little longer..." he sighed against my light brown hair, giving my small, shaking body a gentle squeeze. When my heavy wails finally quieted down to pitiful snivels, my still-recovering body slumped fully into Eric's arms. It took little effort from Eric to hold me up; he was strong, much stronger than anyone else I knew, while I was sickly, weak, and thin. How someone like him could even begin to set his determined sights on me was beyond my comprehension.

"Eric... Eric... Eric..." I breathily repeated his holy name over and over, squishing my nose into his loose tie, gasping in the smell of his heavenly cologne.

"There we go," Eric smiled, but there was a tinge of worry in his eyes. "Is it over?"

"For now," I answered back softly, subtly wiping a smear of red liquid from the corner of my mouth. Eric frowned, tilting my head up by my chin and dabbing at the tears that the pain had caused.

"You know I hate seeing you cry," he chastised, his voice low. It was the tone he used when he worried.

Worried about me...

"I've gotten worse," I replied, regretting it right after I'd said it. That was the last thing Eric would want to hear after an attack like this. To distract him from my discouraging words, I pressed my hands to the center of his chest, grinning at the accelerated double-thud of his heart. It was nice to have something stable close to me in my small, broken world.

Eric wordlessly watched me as I adored the beating inside of him. After a while, he sighed once more, giving me a tight squeeze that could only have been interpreted as a hug.

"You should rest," were the only three words that he finally spoke. When I attempted to protest, Eric simply scooped me up into his arms. I felt my body aching for a nap, and I'm not ashamed to say I nearly fell asleep right there in my coworker's muscular arms. However, as my eyes slowly drifted closed, I felt myself being deposited gently on a couch. A couch that smelled suspiciously like Eric. I beamed, snuggling into the cushion of the couch that was in Eric's cozy office.

"Just be strong, my little ray of light," I vaguely heard Eric murmur against the shell of my ear. "You'll be well soon... I promise on the well-being of my own soul..."

But his ominous words made no sense in my sleep-fogged mind, and everything faded into nothing.

**I ship them so hard. Help me.**

**Anyway.**

**I hope everyone enjoyed ^^ **

**Bye, darlings~**


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